Imag(in)ing the Nano-scale: Introduction

Abstract

This special issue of Nanoethics is the result of four workshops. The first one at the 2009 S.NET conference in Seattle, the second at the Maison des Sciences de L’homme in Paris later the same year, the third at the 2010 S.NET Conference in Darmstadt, and finally a fourth workshop at the University of Bergen in January 2011. The aim of the meetings was, apart from the pure pleasure of stimulating intercourses over papers, luncheons and dinners, to explore visualisations of the nano-scale present across science, public media and art, from the perspective of the humanities. The papers in this issue present a range of perspectives on nano visualisations, drawing upon models of interpretation from fields as diverse as the iconology of St. John of Damascus, to cultural studies of play and gaming in modern life. It is a truism that images are central to nano-scale sciences and technologies (NST). In a certain sense, these practices ‘live[s] from the production and mediation of images’ (Baird et al. 2004). Images play an indispensable role in research as heuristic tools and empirical models, and as documentation of research results. They are instrumental in communicating scientific development to the scientific community, as well as to the broader public, and they are crucial in shaping the collective imaginaries that will eventually constitute the public perception of NST as well as future frameworks for policy. These all represent good reasons to put effort into increasing our understanding of how visualisations of the nanoscale work across all these contexts.